SOMALIA: IMO Completes Somali Shipping Code
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has reported that the Somali Shipping Code has been completed.
The IMO anticipates that the Code – the culmination of six years’ work, supported by the IMO and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) – will be a ‘significant step forward’ for Somalia’s maritime sector and will ‘ensure the necessary legal and administrative processes are in place’ to build its capacity.
The text of the Shipping Code will now undergo the necessary parliamentary processes for enactment into Somali national law.
In a notice posted on its website yesterday (9 March), the IMO said: ‘The Shipping Code is the blueprint for the country to adopt relevant international maritime conventions, to enable it to discharge its responsibilities as a flag, port and coastal State.’
The IMO added that: ‘At more than 3,300 km, Somalia’s coastline is the longest and perhaps the most geographically significant in the Horn of Africa. It has four main commercial seaports and several minor ports.’
Work on the Code began in 2014, as the country was emerging from more than two decades of internal conflict and grappling with the problems of maritime piracy.
Source: Agencies
